Eldelweiss
by xxpoisonivyxx
Summary: He promised himself that nothing would ever hurt her. Of course, it was too late to be making promises such as that one.' {challenge fic for Merodi-chan} Not your average OC fic


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Edelweiss

By: Poison Ivy 

AN: This is my fic Beyblade fic. It is dedicated to my friend Merodi-chan, who challenged me to write this. The conditions will be specified below (after the fic)

Disclaimer: If I owned Beyblade, Kai, would not grovel at the end of season one, and would not gain an annoying friend during season two. Since he did and does, I guess I don't.

~

Without someone precious to you, there is no reason for life. {1}

That is what he had heard once. He heard that without a reason for living, you will just fade away and eventually just die, though you may still live. 

He heard that this was true for everyone. 

But he knows this is not so.

He knows of one person who truly and really, just _does not_ care. About anything. 

This person who lives life because there is nothing better to do, and "why the hell wouldn't I?"

For the longest time, he had thought that he had known only one person who seemed not to need a reason to remain living. 

Then, he realized that he himself was also one of that category. As years passed, winning no longer became such a big deal for him, and he played the game because he enjoyed it, not because he actually _cared_ about titles or other such crap.

That was, until he met her.

She had light light hair and light light eyes, and when he had first seen her; she looked so out of place, despite her coloring, standing in the snow of the tundra.

She had peeked shyly out at him, smiling a small smile, and right then, at that spot, he realized that he had found his reason.

She had looked out at him through _his_ arm. Kai's.

Right at that moment, he promised himself that nothing must harm this girl, this girl of ice and snow, which had come from the sun and warmth.

But, of course, it was really too late for promises such as that one.

She had met Kai at one of the overseas Beyblading tournaments that he attended sometimes, more for show, than an actual lookout for a challenge. She didn't play herself, but her friend did, and when they met, she had taken one look at him, and fell head-over-heels in love.

Kai told him of this over coffee one night, chuckling quietly all the while.

And he had said nothing.

There was something about the man that made the girls just _gravitate_ towards him, that made the girls take one look at his combination of dark eyes and two-tonal hair, and just abandon their lives and family, just because he flashed that charming smirk in their direction.

She had done the same thing, and he hadn't the heart to tell her that her boyfriend felt nothing for her, and that she was just a toy.

After all, there was nothing he could do.

He was always second best to the prodigy, even when they were younger. They would have little practice matches together, but they always ended the same way.

Kai had smashed his very first Beyblade, and he still remembered him standing over it smirking cruelly, saying in that soft and dangerous voice of his, "The strong survive and the weak perish. It would be wise for you to remember that."

Of course, the bastard had broken her heart. He had smashed it like he smashed Beyblades, and dreams. 

All the time they had been together, he had hoped that she could somehow change his heart, like she had changed his. He wanted her to be happy, even if she was with someone else.

But all she did now, was cry.

He watched her knock at the door, hidden around the corner.

She was bundled up warmly against the howling wind, and he could just make out a mittened hand on the door through the falling snow. Though her coloring suggested ice and snow, she never did quite adapt to the conditions.

She waited for an answer as he spied on her, sighing softly as she turned away at last.

"Yuki." He whispered to the wind.

She shouldn't have been able to hear him, but somehow, she did, turning around to look at where he was standing. "Tala!" she called back, waving her arm over her head.

He liked to believe that it was fate.

He walked over from where he was standing (_You were hiding, _chided his mind, _you were hiding so you wouldn't have to see it, see her face stained with tears)_ to where she waited for him.

She forced a smile (though it was strained and barely there) when she saw him. 

He was suddenly bombarded by a memory. 

The first time he had seen her, she had been smiling brightly, and the sun had to smile just a little bit brighter to keep up. Russia rarely saw that much sunshine, and he liked to believe that the country itself was celebrating her arrival.

"Tala, Yuki." Kai had said in his bored drawl, waving an arm vaguely between the two of them. "Yuki, Tala."

She had turned that bright smile in his direction, and he had known. This was the one.

"He's not here." He said shortly, his voice curt and to the point.

Her smile had a sad tinge to it now, and he wondered briefly where the bright one had gone. "I know" she said softly, turning away from the harsh wind, "I came to see you."

"Why?" 

"I came to say goodbye."

His breath caught in his throat, and he couldn't even choke out an answer. 

"I'm going back home tomorrow. I thought…I thought that maybe you would like to know. After all, you were the nicest to me and—"

"Why?" he said again, "why are you leaving?"

"There's nothing for me here." She said, gesturing with one arm. Her words had a muffled quality to them, and he had to strain to hear through her thick scarf. "Too many memories of…" here she trailed off, and stared into space.

"Well. Goodbye Tala. Maybe I'll see you again one day."

So many words choked into his throat at the same time as he watched her walk away from him. He said nothing; not quite believing it was over. That it was really over.

Suddenly a voice said, "Don't go." He was surprised to see that it came from him. 

She stopped and turned around, watching him. So he said it again. "Don't go Yuki."

She walked back over to where he was still standing. "Why not? There's nothing—"

"There's me." again he was surprised by what he was saying. "You have me here."

He looked down into the snow, watching it rise ever higher. 

He couldn't quite meet her eyes, which were no doubt full of surprise and pity.

He remembered suddenly a conversation he had with Kai only a few days ago.

"Why don't I ever see you with girls anymore?" Kai had asked, on the arm of his latest toy, a girl he couldn't quite recall the name of, "Don't tell me you've gone gay." {2}

__

I'm still in love with your last girlfriend. He had wanted to say, but couldn't. After all, second place couldn't afford to say things like that. 

Second place… 

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't quite hear her next words, thrown over his shoulder by the wind so fast that he almost didn't realize they were there.

"What?"

"Come with me." she repeated with a smile.

__

It's that smile again. His mind registered with a start. That same bright smile that he hadn't seen in so long. He had thought that only Kai made it appear. Apparently, he had thought wrong.

"I…"

He closed his gaping mouth, and suddenly, his mouth made a decision that his brain hadn't thought through.

It had been doing that a lot that day, and for a man that based his life on thinking things through, Tala was quite shocked. The last time he had made a rash decision, he had ended up in the abbey.

"Okay."

There was time to take them back, he was aware of that, but as the silence stretched between the two of them, he decided that he didn't really want to.

She reached a hand (still mittened, he was amused to see) out across the distance between them, and as he took it, he smiled. 

It was a small smile, but it was a satisfied one. _My precious thing…_

All through his life, he had come in second place.

He had finally come in first.

Or maybe, he had just stopped caring.

~

{1} Yah, OK. I'll admit it. I kinda stole that concept from Naruto (which I don't own)

{2} I have nothing against anybody that is homosexual! Please don't hurt me! This is just a story!

~

o.O well that was strange, neh? I definitely didn't expect most of the fic to be introspection…

Anyways, if you're interested, these were the conditions.

OC/Tala, and that OC had to have been with Kai first.

I hope that this fic was ok by you Merodi-chan.

I really didn't expect it to turn out like this when I started writing, but this really _poured_ out of me. 

And, please note, that this is only a one-shot.


End file.
